Government urged to step up Russia sanctions effort, send lethal military equipment to Ukraine

Tuesday, 5 April 2022

National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee backed the Government's Russia Sanctions Bill in a debate in March (above) but says the sanctions themselves have been too weak.

The Government is being urged to step up its sanctions effort and send lethal military equipment to Ukraine, as Russia is accused of committing war crimes.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta on Monday night announced a further 36 Russian oligarchs with close ties to the Russian regime would face sanctions, preventing them from travelling to New Zealand, holding assets and doing business in New Zealand.

The new sanctions came as reports of rapes, mass killings, and woundings of civilians emerged from Ukraine, as Russian forces withdrew from areas surrounding the capital city after weeks of heavy fighting.

National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee said there was a “mismatch” between the sanctions levelled by the Government and the actions of New Zealand’s traditional partners, a gap which needed to be “urgently” remedied.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been sanctioned by New Zealand. But officials initially misspelt his middle name when he was first sanctioned in March.

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He said the vast majority of the 488 Russians sanctioned by the Government so far had only been subject to irrelevant travel bans, and he questioned why the Government had so far only placed sanctions on one Russian bank, Promsvyazbank.

“It's not even Sberbank, which is the biggest bank in Russia … There’s absolutely no clarity here about what process is being used by MFAT to determine who is an associate of Mr Putin.”

He said the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and European Union had frozen the assets of Russia’s major banks, institutions and individuals, hampering Russia’s ability to finance its war.

Australia, as well as targeting a larger number of individuals and entities, announced on Tuesday that it would also ban the export of luxury goods, including wine and high-value cosmetics, to Russia.

Australia had previously also banned the export of alumina and bauxite to Russia and targeted “propagandists and disinformation operatives” in Russia with sanctions.

Brownlee said the Government should be considering how to send lethal military equipment to Ukraine. Such a move has not been ruled out by the Government, but Cabinet has so far decided against sending lethal equipment.

'Anybody who looks at those pictures, the news footage, what appears to be just indiscriminate killing of civilians going about their very obviously disrupted daily lives, would take a different view now than what we might have taken a few weeks ago.”

Mahuta has been approached for comment. On Monday, she said Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) officials contiued to work “as quickly as possible” to place further sanctions.

Among the new sanctions placed on Monday evening was a further restriction on New Zealanders “dealing with services” that were provided by, or would benefit, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, Putin’s name – Vladimir Vladimiovich Putin – on the sanctions document was spelt differently than in the first sanctions round.

Australia has now banned the sale of luxury goods, including wine, to Russia.

“The spelling of Vladimir’s middle name has been corrected in the Russia Sanctions Amendment Regulations (those gazetted yesterday evening) which will be reflected in the consolidated regulations,” an Mfat spokeswoman said.

Sarah Salmond, a partner at law firm MinterEllisonRuddWatts, said New Zealand was finding its feet imposing sanctions.

The Government had only legislated to have ability to introduce sanctions outside the framework of the UN in March, in response to Russia’s invasion.

“Other governments have huge infrastructure to do the research necessary and set the rules around how you do asset freezes and where the money goes, but we are starting from scratch,” Salmond said.

“These things take time because we are creating the infrastructure as we go.”

It had been expected there would be more guidance by now about on what New Zealand entities should do if they found themselves holding sanctioned assets, she said.

“Practically, what kind of account do you put them in, do you pay interest or not, how you notify? We have none of those rules at all yet.

“There is a real issue in terms of sanctions expertise in New Zealand because up until last month we didn’t even have an autonomous sanctions regime, so we didn’t need the infrastructure to support one.”

Salmond said she realised people were frustrated “but it is not an easy undertaking”.

It was important to note that the new sanctions targeting the 36 Russians also prohibited New Zealanders from having a broad range of dealings with any of their ‘associates’, she said.

“The tentacles of that reach a lot further than you might think.”

Many expected the Government would soon target some or all of the 11 Russian banks and government entities sanctioned by Australia in March, Salmond said.

When considered alongside the earlier targeting of the Central Bank of Russia, Australia’s sanctions now targeted all Russian government entities responsible for issuing and managing Russia’s sovereign debt, she said.